Red Berry Breakfast Risotto

I got this fun recipe from Melanie at Kitchen Cafe --she is my sister Erin's sister in law, one fabulous cook and a very fun person!! She has a great site--I have LOVED her recipes! Thanks Melanie! I brought this to my recipe exchange group last month when the theme was beans--I think you could just use vanilla if you don't want to spend the extra money on a bean. (By the way I bought them -split with some friends-from the San Fransico Herb Company online and we got 20 for $17) This recipe is REALLY good. I used frozen raspberries, which worked great! I just tossed them in frozen and stirred until it was all pink and the raspberries were broken up and distributed. Also--I had the hardest time finding Arborio rice--until I figured out that a lot of stores package it as Risotto. I ended up buying a package at Costco, much cheaper than anywhere else! So now that I have such a large amount of it I will be trying some more risotto recipes out!Red Berry Breakfast Risotto
adapted from Kitchen Cafe

1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal

1 cup Arborio rice
1/2 cup heavy cream
6 cups water
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups frozen raspberries OR 1 cup ripe raspberries
1 cup ripe strawberries, sliced

In a rice cooker add all the ingredients, except the fruit. Cook until done. (Alternately, you can cook the mixture in a large pot. Bring to a quick boil and then lower to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 25-30 minutes.) Remove rice and oatmeal from the rice cooker. Add raspberries and stir to combine. Continue to stir until the berries have turned the risotto slightly pink, 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle strawberries on top and serve immediately.